Halloweentown Again
by H. K. Rissing
Summary: in Marnies' second year at Witch U, a character from her past makes a surprising reappearance.


A.N. Takes place in Marnie's second year at Witch U, after the fourth movie., for the record, in this fic, Ethan did NOT renounce his powers. I though that went beyond stupid. Also, I'm seeing Kimberly J. Brown as Marnie, not Sara Paxton, because she just made Marnie way too bony and fashion-forward, not nearly weird enough.

Marnie heaved the last load of her laundry into the washer and leaned back, wiping sweat off her forehead. The room was ridiculously humid because almost everyone was there, washing or drying a load. There were plenty of surreptitious glances being cast around, along with subtle fingersnaps or hand gestures. Marnie felt she had done enough illegal magic at Witch U to the point where the newly appointed High Chancellor could expel her if she so chose, so she didn't want to provide any more ammunition against herself. And besides, she would rather be caught using her magic for some big, bad, noble reason, rather than something as trivial as washing clothes. The High Chancellor had been debating about whether or not to continue her scholarship, but at the urges of Professor Periwinkle, she decided to let Marnie keep her full scholarship, as thanks for all that transpired last Halloween.

"Hey Marnie!" said a squeaky female voice from behind her. Marnie, taken by surprise, jumped and whirled around. She came face to face with her little sister Sophie. Sophie was no longer quite so little. She was almost as tall as Marnie herself, and bore quite a resemblance to her. "Hey Soph!" responded Marnie elatedly. She hadn't seen her sister for the year and a half she had been away completing her training with their Grandmother Aggie, and it was very good to see her again. They hugged each other and Marnie listened patiently as Sophie prattled on about every single infinitesimal detail about being a witch-in-training.

When she paused for breath Marnie managed to slip in a few questions. "So what are you doing here? Where's Grandma? Are you sure you're allowed to be here?" Sophie waved her hand airily at the questions, a habit she had picked up from Grandma. "Well, where else would I go on my first crash drive? I'm teleporting all by myself, and Grandma says that if I come back all in one piece, I'll have passed." Marnie felt the smallest shiver of envy- her little sister knew more about magic than she did- but she bit it back, concentrating on feeling nothing but happy that her sister was learning so well. Sophie leaned around Marnie and her eyes glittered. "Ooooooo, what's this I see? A pile of laundry? Grandma taught me this one ages ago, it's really simple, why don't you just zap it?" All of this had been said in a very loud carrying voice. Marnie slapped a hand over her sisters' mouth and hissed, "I can't just 'zap it' because students have been banned from using magic on campus. Everyone who can does anyway, and admittedly so do I sometimes, but only when I'm completely positive there are no teachers around, because if they see you, you can get expelled."

The gleam left Sophie's' eyes for about a second then popped right back in. "SO why don't I do it?" she said, giggling impishly. "Uh, hello? Did I not just explain to you why not?" Sophie smiled like Marnie was missing something. "You said, 'students'. And as I am not enrolled in Witch U, I can use magic on campus as much as I want." Marnie acknowledged this with grudging respect: her sister had a talent for finding loopholes- another similarity of theirs. "But still, I don't want you to zap it," she insisted. Sophie pouted. "Oh, come on, Marnie! You would have used to want to see what I could do! You would have said some rules were made to be broken, and encouraged me to do it anyway, because you would have said that the risk made it fun!" Marnie's eyes widened. Had her sister always been so whiny? "Have I always ben so irresponsible?" she asked. Sophie ignored her and wheedled a bit more. "Come on, Marnie, pleeeeeeease? It won't even take a second, and Grandma will never know, and if we get into trouble, you can blame me." But as she spoke, Sophie had already raised her left hand and extended her witching finger. "Sophie, really, don't-" "No, come on, I won't mess up!" "Sophie-" "It won't even take enough time for you to blink!" Sophie had been dodging around her sister, trying to get a direct hit at the laundry, but Marnie kept getting in front of her. Marnie dove at her sister, but Sophie sidestepped and Marnie tackled a pile of some guy's smelly, sloppy Joe- stained clothing. Sophie muttered the incantation over the clothes, but Marnie heard it: the telltale mispronounced word. "So-Phie!" Marnie cried angrily, getting up. A mound of pink suds were bubbling up and piling over the top of the washer. "Uh, Marnie? I think I said the wrong-" both witches had been backing up, but then the suds mountain exploded, spurting into the air like Old Faithful and dumping heavy bucketfuls of suds and all of the sop and grime that had been inhabiting that washer for centuries down all over Marnie and Sophie.

Now Marnie was less than elated to see her sister. Not only had her favorite jeans, (and the rest of her, for that matter) had some disgusting combination of dirt, germs, and some wet, icky green substance slopped down the front of them, but her hair would probably never be the same again, and her clothes, radioactive green and sludgy beacons, had been scattered far and wide. And the rest of the kids were eyeing her disgustedly. Marnie surmised she probably didn't smell as good as one who took as shower just that morning should. She glared icily down at her sister, who shrugged her goop-encrusted shoulders embarrassedly. "What happened to 'I won't mess up'?" demanded Marnie angrily. "I'm sorry, I just got carried away, and I said the wrong word and-" Marnie cut her off. "It's okay, she said wearily, even though she didn't feel like forgiving her little sister. "Now come on, help me pick up these clothes." This time around, Sophie muttered the right spell, and it even cleaned the clothes of the green mystery substance. "Pity it only works on inanimate objects," Marnie thought sadly, feeling the gloop begin to form a crust in her hair.

They gathered them up, and, careful not to let the clean clothes touch their nasty selves, they began the walk to Marnie's dorm. After Aneesa's grandmother had fallen deathly ill last semester, she left school, saying that at the moment, to most important thing was helping keep the "family business" under control, and wouldn't say what that entailed. They still talked through witches' glass sometimes. That meant Marnie had the dorm room all to herself. The High Chancellor told her that she could be expecting two new roommates soon, though, which was why she had been doing laundry in the first place, because all the new arrivals were to get there that day.

As Marnie and Sophie trudged across the campus to her dorm, Marnie wished fervently that she knew a spell to magic herself clean. They were leaving lumpy, gray-green footprints in their wake, and the janitor looked about ready to give them the evil eye. "Pleasedon''mreallyreallysorry!" Sophie blurted out miserably. "It's okay. I'm not . . . . . . THAT that mad just try not to do it again." Ethan Dalloway had been walking across the campus at the same time, and saw two soggy green people walking as well, and figured one of them may as well be Marnie. He raced over to them, and sure enough, one of them was. He couldn't be sure, but he thought the other gloopy green soul might have been her sister, Sophie. "Hey. . . . What happened to you guys?" he asked. "Little witch-in-training sister plus laundry plus wrong spell equals very big no-no," responded Marnie. Beneath the mask of sludge, Sophie looked chagrined. Ethan winced sympathetically. "Well, I think I know a spell that can get you cleaned up," he said. He cast eyes about to see if there were any teachers around. They were not, but over on the edge of the great lawn, a cluster of good-looking guys had gathered. These boys were what you could call the "jocks" of Witch U, and they had a new arrival.

A tall, dark, handsome stranger wearing exclusively black clothes was standing in their midst, laughing and talking with them as though he had been attending Witch U all his life. The waves of power emanating from him were overwhelming. She felt certain that if he had been there last year, she would have bumped into him at least once, and most certainly would have remembered him. He felt vaguely familiar, as though she had known him in another life. And without even a word of good-bye, Ethan raced over to them.

This particular clique of boys was one you did not just "race over to" without invitation. The group was comprised solely of not only the most good-looking, but the most powerful guys in all of Witch U (so therefore Ethan could probably join, but most likely not Dylan) and if you were in the fraternity, you could rest assured that after college, you could secure some big, important position, get paid a lot of money, and live the rest of you life out in the lap of luxury. But Ethan seemed to know Mr. "Tall-Dark-Handsome" who greeted him like an old friend. Ethan motioned for Marnie and Sophie to come over. Marnie, in her current state, SO did not want to venture into the middle of the group of boys, but couldn't really think of any compelling reason not to, besides her vanity. They stood next to him, and he was beaming like a two-year-old on Christmas morning. "Okay, this is one of my best friends," "Marnie and Soapy Cromwell. I know." Interrupted Mr. Tall-Dark-Handsome. Sophie stomped her foot. "My NAME is SOPHIE Cromwell. And why're you gonna say 'Marnie'n'Soapy Cromwell, like we're a single entity?" Mr. TDH lifted an eyebrow at her and asked, "So where's Dylan?" Sophie turned to Marnie, "Yeah where is Dylan?" Marnie shrugged. "How should I know? Probably studying his brains out in the library. Wait," She said, turning to Mr. TDH (looking him full in his face brought on the strangest sense of déjà vu, and also made her wish desperately that she wasn't as slimy as she was.) "How do you know about Dylan?" he offered her a small smile, and his dark eyes became for manic, more intense, if that was possible. "You're forgetting, Marnie, that I know everything about you." 'Uh, creeper alert!' Marnie thought. "Don't you remember Marnie? I remember every detail about you. I even recognized you aura, under all that stinking. . . . . stuff." Now Marnie was beginning to think Mr. TDH was a delusional lunatic, but then out of nowhere, he plucked a withered black rose, and as he offered it to her, the head returned to the vibrant red of a rose in full bloom.

Marnie felt her heart stop for a second, her face go white, her knees go weak, and she suddenly felt like she was drowning in a deluge of icy, brackish water. It was Kal, her greatest nemesis, the only non-Cromwell in all of Halloweentown whose powers could hold a candle to hers. Yes, Kal, more powerful than ever, and with no doubt a whole new set of tricks up his sleeve, was back. Suddenly the ground was rushing up at her, and then everything was as black as Kal's unfathomable eyes.

**Pleas let me know what you think of it. Any suggestions or comments will be vastly appreciated. Thanks for reading! **


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